QMI-INS-034a · 85 AH
Milestone of ʿAbd al-Malik from Fīq, Golan: 52 miles from Damascus
ميل عبد الملك من فيق في الجولان: اثنان وخمسون ميلا من دمشق
The village of Fīq, southern Golan; now Golan Archaeological Museum
- <بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم>
- [لا إله إلا الله وحده لا] شريك لـ[ـه محمد رسو]
- ل الله أمر بصنعة هـ[ـذه الأميال عبد]
- الله عبد الملك أمير المـ[ـؤمنين على يدي]
- مساور مولى أميـ[ـر الـ]ـمؤمنين في [...]
- من سنة خمس وثمـ[ـنـ]ـين من دمشق [إلى]
- هذا إثنين (اثنان) وخمسين (وخمسون) ميـ[ـلا]
<In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate.> (line lost) [There is no god but God alone;] no partner h[as He; Muḥammad is the messenge]- r of God. Has ordered the making of th[ese milestones the servant of] God ʿAbd al-Malik, Commander of the Fa[ithful, at the hands of] Musāwir, client of the Comman[der of the] Faithful, in [the month of ...] of the year eighty-five. From Damascus [to] this (milestone) fifty-two mi[les].
A square basalt block, dressed as a building stone, found in 1968 near the village of Fīq in the southern Golan and kept in the Golan Archaeological Museum. The first line, with the basmalah, is lost, and the right and left edges of the text are worn; the date survives as the year eighty-five, with the month lost. The milestone marks fifty-two miles from Damascus, one mile short of its companion found at the same place (QMI-INS-034b).
Source: Elad, Amikam. “The Southern Golan in the Early Muslim Period: The Significance of Two Newly Discovered Milestones of ʿAbd al-Malik.” Der Islam 76 (1999): 33–88, at pp. 33–35 (inscription no. 1, Qazrin Museum no. 876001). See also Sharon, Moshe. Corpus Inscriptionum Arabicarum Palaestinae, vol. III (Leiden: Brill), “Fīq”, pp. 220–224.